The AKB48 Group teams will compete against each other in a new event, the AKB48 Group Pennant Race. Points will be awarded based on theater ticket applications, theater version handshake ticket sales and sousenkyo votes.

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29 March 2013

AKB48 have announced details of the senbatsu election (sousenkyo) to select the participating members for their 32nd single. The election itself will take place at the [AKB48 Super Festival at Nissan Stadium] which has now been announced will take place on 8th June 2013. The concert itself will take place at 15:00 on that date, with the election taking place at 17:30. The event will take place come rain or shine. No ticket details have been released so far.

This 5th general election is to select the senbatsu members who will participate in AKB48's 32nd single, which will be released sometime in August 2013. There will be a total of 64 members elected:

The members available to be elected has changed this year. Between 31st March and 7th April, eligible members will have to apply to participate. Eligible members are:

1. AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, and HKT48 members (including kenkyuusei) as of 31st March 2013.
2. AKB48 members moved overseas (Takajo Aki, Nakagawa Haruka, Miyazawa Sae, Suzuki Mariya)
3. Graduated members who have spent more than four years in an AKB48 group.

So far, a number of graduated (and graduating) members have already announced their intention on whether to participate or not:

Some other current members have announced their willingness to participate. The full list of participating members will be revealed after 7th April.

Of interest to this perhaps, are the two reunion SDN48 performances of their 1st Stage [Yuuwaku no Garter] on the 31st March. Second and third generation members will perform a daytime show, and first generation members an evening show. All SDN48 members had been forced to graduate en masse at their farewell [Next Encore] concert on 31st March 2012, so these reunion shows mark a year since the group disbanded, although some reunited for the revival performance of their 1st stage as part of [Minogashita Kimitachi e 2] concert series on 15th May 2012.

There are 12 different methods to get a voting ticket for this election, and the voting period will be open from 21st May to 7th June 2013, a day before the election at the [AKB48 Super Festival at Nissan Stadium]. The methods of getting a voting ticket are:

The changes from last year are the addition of the NMB48 and HKT48 Live On Demand subscribers, which did not exist last year, and the inclusion of voting tickets in the Theatre Edition of the single prior to the single whose members are being voted for.

AKB48's 31st Single, has yet to be titled, but will be released on the 22nd May 2013. It will be released in a total of 7 types:

The Regular and Limited Editions are both CD+DVD editions costing 1,600 yen each and the disc content is the same for for the same Type number in Regular and Limited.

Regular Editions will come with a photo and a voting ticket.

Limited Editions will come with a national event handshake ticket, a voting ticket, and a photobook by Ninagawa Mika.

Theatre Editions are CD only and for this single there is a shake up. You can either purchase them with a voting ticket + individual member handshake ticket + 1 photo OR with a voting ticket + 2 photos.

These whole announcements are very exciting. It is surprising to me that the Nissan Stadium concert is only one day long and contains the election as well, which is normally a separate big event. The shake-up in election candidacy in interesting, but I suspect most graduated (and graduating) members will not participate. The two members who have announced (Nontii and Cindy) are well known to keep close links to the group already. Perhaps what makes the biggest change to the election dynamic, is the inclusion of voting tickets in the Theatre Edition of the single, as these make up by far the largest proportion of single sales (roughly 800k per single) and have never previously included voting tickets.